Da Costa wanted to stay in WEC without BMW

New JOTA LMP2 driver Antonio Felix da Costa targeted a return to the FIA World Endurance Championship as soon as he knew BMW was ending its GTE campaign.

The long-time BMW driver told Motorsport.com that he made it priority to find a drive in the WEC alongside a continued presence in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, which is due to be confirmed as early as Monday.

"I started talking to people as soon as BMW made it clear that we wouldn't be racing on with the M8 GTE — I like endurance racing," said da Costa, who has replaced Pastor Maldonado aboard JOTA's Goodyear-liveried #38 Oreca 07 (pictured top).

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Da Costa, 27, explained that his first port of call had been the British JOTA team after making his prototype debut in one of its Orecas entered under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner at the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

"I really enjoyed driving a prototype and Jota was where I started looking," said the Portuguese driver, who revealed that he also had discussions with the Rebellion Racing LMP1 squad.

"When I started talking to Jota, it was about the racing the other Jota car [entered as Chan/DC]. But I was happy to get the late call to drive this car."